Q: Tell me, if you will, a story from your childhood that explains who you are as a writer or as a person.

A: I inappropriately saw Fight Club when I was 13 at a poorly supervised sleepover. After that I decided I was going to write a grimy violent novel, but it was going to be "experimental" in that it was going to only have dialogue. What I actually had written was a play. I wrote my first play and was calling it "an experimental novel."

Which is to say, I'm the kid who sticks out at the edge of the class photo. I'm kind of in the wrong spot and maybe (hopefully) it's endearing enough to not get me kicked out of the class. I'm rubbish at staying in line, I revel in independent deviation, I have a penchance for stumbling upon previously invented wheels and calling them new, and I have a deep affinity for fast banter dialogue, swift punches to the gut, and sweeping landscape moments where you watch the city burn.